Home Builders Association of Chester and Delaware Counties

Pennsylvania Legislation Update

The Pennsylivana Builders Assocaition maintains an on-going review of priority and non-priority legislation. Below, please find the Legislative Issues Report as of July 2008.

Priority Legislation

Senate Bill 2

This bill creates the H2O PA Act, giving the Commonwealth Financing Authority $800 million for water and sewer, storm water, flood protection and dam safety projects. Rep. DePasquale offered an amendment in the House Environmental committee, supported by PBA, PMAA and DEP, which would provide sewage treatment plants with the option of using funds made available to them under the bill to purchase nutrient credits, with the intention of therefore encouraging the use of the trading program. This amendment was adopted. However, during the final days of the legislative session, an amendment agreed to by the governor’s office and the Senate Republican leadership stripped out the language supported by PBA. The bill passed the House and Senate and is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

Senate Bill 1341

This bill would provide for a voter referendum on $400 million in borrowing for water and sewer projects. One category of eligibility for projects is the reduction of nutrients and sediment to comply with the Tributary Strategy. Rep. DePasquale offered a similar amendment as the one for SB 2, providing sewage treatment plants with the option of using funds made available to them under the bill to purchase nutrient credits, with the intention of therefore encouraging the use of the trading program. This amendment was retained in SB 1341 and was approved by the House and Senate and awaits the Governor’s signature.

House Bill 507 and Senate Bill 100

These bills create the Home Improvement Contractor Registration Act. At the end of June, Senator Tomlinson, prime sponsor of SB 100, and Rep. McCall, prime sponsor of HB 507, held discussions over which of these pieces of legislation would move prior to the summer break. The legislature now has a general agreement that SB 100 will move in September.

House Bill 1096

This bill amends the PA Construction Code Act by establishing a technical review and advisory committee made up of experts in all fields related to the design, construction and inspection of buildings. This council is balanced, additionally, with municipal representatives. The council would be charged with reviewing proposed changes to the International Code Council’s family of codes before they are adopted for use in Pennsylvania by the Department of Labor and Industry. We expected this bill to be on the Governor’s desk before the summer break, however, due to issues caused by a Penn State amendment, opposed by PSATS which would give the Department of Labor and Industry inspection power over all state related universities and their related entities, this bill is being held until September.

House Bill 780

This bill amends the Municipalities Planning Code. Senator Regola amended this legislation in the Senate Local Government committee with 3 of PBA’s MPC fix it list amendments. We anticipate this bill to be sent to the Governor in September. Those amendments are:

Interpretation of Subdivision and Land Development Ordinances

This amendment provides that subdivision and land development ordinances will be interpreted in favor of applicants where doubt exists as to whether a requirement applies to the applicant. It is similar to Section 603.1 of the MPC concerning a similar presumption with respect to zoning ordinances. Section 603.1 is a codification of PA case law.
Plat Approval

Allows a subdivision or land development to contain less than 20% of the total number of dwelling units as depicted on the preliminary plan
Eliminating Duplicative Determinations

This amendment gives a development applicant who is before a governing body to apply for a conditional use approval the ability to request that the governing body also proceed to give the applicant a variance for the special exception instead of requiring the applicant to make a second stop before the zoning hearing board for a related special exception or variance.

HB 1280
This bill also amends the Municipalities Planning Code. PBA was able to get 2 additional MPC fixes amended into the legislation in the Senate Local Government Committee. These amendments clarify the process for a land development applicant to obtain a determination from a zoning hearing officer that his proposed development complies with the zoning ordinance and zoning map prior to submitting an application for development approval. Further the amendments require the zoning officer to issue a written preliminary opinion within 30 days of a written request for the opinion. This bill was held over, but we expect it to be on the Governor’s desk in September.

Senate Bill 752
This bill creates the Data Quality Act. The main obstacle is the administration, despite PBA’s willingness to compromise, the Governor and his staff are unwilling to support the bill. PBA launched a PR and Grassroots campaign, however unfortunately, the email messages, along with the radio ads and op-ed campaign were not sufficient to sway the Governor on this issue at this time.

Non-priority legislation

House Bill 1329 and House Bill 1330
PBA, along with other interested groups, have been working this past year on fixing two Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions affecting land use ordinances and land use decisions in Pennsylvania. HB 1329 amends the MPC addressing the Supreme Court Case known as Luke v. Cataldi. HB 1330 amends the Judiciary Code addressing a Supreme Court Case known as Glen Geary v. Dover Twp. These cases hold that where a municipality has failed to comply with required notices to the public, that the ordinances or land use decisions are void from inception and have no validity. House Bill 1329 creates a process for land owners to provide optional duplicate public notice in cases where they believe the municipality may have failed to provide the required public notice regarding their land use approval. HB 1330 creates a new process for municipal public notices regarding zoning change ordinances and time table for an individual to challenge the validity of that zoning ordinance. HB 1329 is Act 39 of 2008 and HB 1330 is Act 40 of 2008.

House Bill 1742
This bill creates the Scrap Materials Theft Prevention Act. It currently sits in Senate Appropriations. PBA had been working with coalition partners to have this bill voted before the summer break – however, it has been delayed until September, due to successful delaying tactics by the scrap dealers.

Senate Bill 1291
SB 1291 and HB 2445 (identical) creates the Neighborhood Blight Reclamation and Revitalization Act. PBA is a member of a coalition, headed by the PA Association of Realtors, working on amendments to both pieces of legislation. Hearings were held in the House and Senate in June.

HB 2188 creates the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act. PBA is a member of a coalition, headed by the PA Association of Realtors, working on amendments to this piece of legislation. This bill was fast-tracked at the end of the session – but PBA, along with coalition partners, were able to postpone movement of this bill until September, in order to get additional needed amendments.

Senate bills 1400, 1401, 1402

This is a three-bill package draft by the PHFA and supported by the Housing Alliance, PAR and coalition of other housing organizations, creates the Foreclosure Relief and Affordable Housing Initiative. This also includes the Housing trust fund portion of the legislation. It is a Senate Republican leadership priority to pass these bills before the beginning of the summer break. Due to specific Senate Republican rank and file opposition – these bills have slowed up and will not be considered until fall, at the earliest.

House bills 2600, 2601, 2602 – these House bills are identical to the above Senate bills and were introduced at a press conference attended by PBA.

House bill 2400 – Creates the Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act. This legislation creates a stricter definition for subcontractor and establishes strict penalties for misclassifying employees as subcontractors. This bill is seriously flawed and the GA staff, along with a host of other interested coalition partners, are actively trying to stop this bill. The coalition attempted to amend this legislation to make it more palatable, however, the amendment was not considered and we sent letters to the House urging them to vote no on this legislation. This bill passed over PBA and coalition opposition, but it is being held up in the Senate committee. We do not expect any movement until the fall at the earliest.

HB 2297 and SB 1412 – KOZ legislation. These bills seek to extend the time period for KOZ sites to be developed. Construction trade unions have successfully amended HB 2297 to require that any construction in a KOZ be built at the prevailing wage and subject to the separations act. PBA and other business organizations are working to kill HB 2297 and to block amendments to SB 1412. All prevailing wage references have been eliminated from SB 1412. The construction trade unions have agreed not to push for prevailing wage amendments in KOZ legislation. SB 1412 passed the House and Senate and was sent to the Governor.

Special Session House Bill 1

The Alternative Energy Investment Act, was passed and sent to the Governor. This comprehensive green building and alternative energy grant and loan program, was amended to change green building standards to accommodate NAHB green build standards as well as:

$25 million of the total $650 million program allocated for residential green build grants and loans.
$100 million has been allocated for loans, grants, reimbursement or rebates to individuals residing in an owner-occupied dwellings or to small businesses for solar energy projects.
$25 million has been allocated for loans or grants to projects for geothermal technologies, including geothermal heating systems.
$92.5 million for loans, grants, reimbursements or rebates for the purchase and installation price of consumer energy conservation projects.

Mortgage reform legislation: The Governor will be signing five mortgage reform bills in early July. The five bills are:

House Bill 2179 which creates a new state-licensing requirement for all mortgage loan officers – current law only requires companies to be licensed, not individual loan sales people. This is the cornerstone of the package. It ensures that every single person selling mortgages in Pennsylvania is vetted, trained and can be held accountable.
Senate Bill 483 which amends the Loan Interest and Protection law of 1974 to increase the monetary cap from $50,000 to $217,873 – the effect being that prepayment penalties are banned on mortgages of about $218,000 or less. ($217,873 is simply $50,000 adjusted for inflation from 1974 to 2008; the sum will adjust annually going forward.)
Senate Bill 484 which permits the Department of Banking to tell the public sooner about enforcement actions and fines levied against non-depository licensees, such as mortgage brokers.
Senate Bill 485 which amends the Real Estate Appraisers Certification Act to expand the Board of Real Estate Appraisers to include the Attorney General and the Secretary of Banking. It also increases maximum penalties for appraiser misconduct from $1,000 to $10,000 per violation.
Senate Bill 486 which amends the Housing Finance Agency Law to require lenders to send copies of foreclosure notices to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency so that mortgage foreclosures can be monitored on a statewide basis.